Posts Tagged ‘grocery store relay’

Many of you are aware of the Grocery Store Relay I attend every other Saturday. My husband lovingly reminds me that the correct term for the event is “Sidewalk Sale.” He has never been.

Row after row of boxes, with people crowded around 3 to 4 people deep. I spy a box or two and stand guard for an hour and fifteen minutes. Everyone else does, too, and we will tell you which box(es) is (are) ours. If you want something out of my box that I don’t want, fine – I’ll give it to you after I grab my box. Many of us crouch into starting positions as though we are about to run a marathon, waiting for the whistle to blow. This, folks, is not an ordinary sidewalk sale – this is a relay, in every sense of the word. You may win or lose your box. I’ve had boxes grabbed out from under me because some people don’t like to play by the rules. Normally most everyone is nice, but there is always one or two that likes to ruin it for everyone.

No, this is no ordinary sidewalk sale. Especially not with the value you get for your dollar! Seven dollars a box, and you can’t beat it. This morning, I grabbed two boxes, and managed to get the items I wanted into one box. The box was overly stuffed, believe me. I have decided to note the items I brought home in my one box and calculate the value I got today. I have listed the items I purchased, along with the amount of each, and the estimated ARV for the amount I brought home. Some of the prices I could find online, and some only listed bulk, so I listed the unit price according to the bulk price. These prices may vary, but you will get a good idea of how much this would all cost. At the end, I will calculate the total amount, subtract the seven dollars I spent, and give you the total savings amount. Here is a picture of all of the items for your viewing pleasure:

Here we go!

Diamond Slivered Almonds – 4 bags – $11.96

Diamond Black Walnuts – 6 bags – $16.32

Wagner’s Seasoning Packets – 4 – $4.93

Land O Lakes Cocoa Classics – 35 packs – $23.97

Zone Perfect Indulgence bars – 3 boxes – $18.87

Alessi spices – 7 – $15.68

McCormick Garlic Salt – 4 – $6.57

Enjoy Life Trail Mix – 12 bags – $45.38

Equal Tablets – 1 – $2.49

Quaker High Fiber Oatmeal – 1 box – $4.25

Del Monte Spaghetti Sauce – 26 oz – $2.05

Kind Bar – 1 bar – $1.83

Arizona Mandarin Orange Green Tea Bags – 2 boxes – $5.50

Propel Powder Packs – 1 box – $2.98

Enjoy Life No-Oat Oatmeal Cookies – 6 boxes – $22.62

Chebe Pizza Crust Mix – 2 – $5.10

Bakery on Main Gluten Free Granola Bars – 7 boxes – $41.23

Seeds of Change Arroz Hispana – 1 bag – $3.45

Seeds of Change Basmati Rice – 1 bag – $3.45

Nestle Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Morsels – 1 bag – $2.50

Slim Fast Meal Bars – 2 boxes – $13.38

Slim Fast snack bars – 8 bars – $17.52

Grand Total: $265.47

Total Savings: $258.47

There you have it! A box full of healthy goodness for diiirt cheap. See if you can find out if there is a store in your area that does something like this – it is so worth it! For those of you close to me, I will let you know where to find this one.

First, please allow me to apologoze. I have been a busy bee this holiday weekend and I haven’t posted since Thursday! Second, I don’t know how long it will take me to write this post since I am in the middle of eating my lunch:

Leftover day, with leftover Thai veggie fried brown rice and leftover lime chicken with peppers that I made into a salad and put on sandwich thins. My belly is doing a happy dance right now.

So, having finished the rice, I am now between bites of the sandwich, updating my blog. I have had a great weekend so far! Scott took Friday off, so Noah and I spent the afternoon with him before we dropped Noah off at his mom’s. Fun game night with friends Friday night! They even popped kettle corn for me so that I wouldn’t be left out of the snacks. We left around ten thirty so that Natasha and I could get ready for the grocery store relay!

Da da-da daaaa!!!! The whole point of this post. I had a blast yet again, and even more friends joined in this time. The gang from my first Saturday was there, minus one due to a migraine, plus two other lovely ladies from church and a great friend of mine from growing up. Word is getting out about this thing, and if there ends up being too many people at the relay, I’m afraid they will all blame me. Never fear – I will continue to tell you of my great finds at the grocery store relay!

I rode with Natasha and we got there a little before eight. I cased the joint with her sister to find the box I wanted to grab. They had a box full of organic preserves, several boxes of almond and rice milk, box after box of cereal, and then I saw it:

The row on the right, third box up from the bottom… a box full of protein and fiber heaven. All this box had in it was healthy snack bars! I love these for snacks, meals on the go (if they have enough fiber), and Scott has gotten into the habit of eating them, too. I didn’t want to be stingy with them, though, so when I grabbed this box, I went back to my group and told everyone to take some bars for them, too, and I would take the rest home with me.

I still had almost an entire box left over. This should last us for months. I also found three more (3!!) jars of Maranatha nut butters! Two organic peanut butter, and one of the crunchy and roasted almond butter like I found before. My mom asked me, “how much peanut butter are you eating?!”. I assured her that we’re stockpiling since the sell by dates on them are a long way off from now. We have a good stock of nut butter now, and that’s a good thing, since there’s now two of us that are eating them regularly.

There were several organic salad dressings to choose from as well, and I got some Caesar, some honey mustard vinaigrette, and some sweet and sour dressing. I got a box of bulgar wheat, some more oat bran, granola, whole wheat pastry flour, and black beans. This is some mondo pantry building on the cheap. Seriously cheap. Here is my kitchen table with all of my finds:

The two boxes in the back are free salad dressing cases they were giving out. These aren’t fat free, so we plan on donating them to our local soup kitchen. Saturday afternoon, I went to lunch and a movie with my mom and sister! Lunch, for me, included seasoned broiled tilapia with cauliflower and snow peas. It was yummy! After, we went to see Eat Pray Love. It was a wonderful afternoon with my two favorite women of all time before my sister leaves for Spain!

Speaking of my sister and Spain, Scott and I are going to dinner at my parent’s house tonight for her going away party/engagement party/everyone’s labor day party. I am eating high fiber today (I had about 15g at breakfast, and more for a snack) so that I may enjoy dinner with my family tonight without feeling guilty about how much fiber is in the meal. I informed them that no menu changes needed to take place tonight just for me. There will be eighteen there, and I am one, so I will enjoy myself.

Several of my Facebook friends have already commented that they want to know more about this “grocery store relay”. Well, here is my review and the results from my first “grocery store relay”.

A local grocer, Sav Mor, hosts a sidewalk sale every other Saturday. A lot of the items are close to their sell by date, but being dried goods, shelf life in the pantry is long, so this is a great way to build up your pantry.

My best friend from church, Natasha, had been telling me about it, and I wasn’t quite sure if it would be a great value or not. Then she brought me a box. WOW!!! Dried goods, all healthy and organic, as much as you can fit into a banana box for $7 a box!!! The box she got me had Kashi cereal, Kashi fiber bars, trail mix, organic fruit bars, and several other items. About three weeks later I began eating healthy. I told my hubby “You don’t have to go with me, but I am going so that I can get some really good healthy foods for dirt cheap!”

This past Saturday I met up with a few members of Natasha’s family. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn’t expecting what I found – row after row of banana boxes filled to almost overflowing of just about every dried good imaginable. They had a few normal items, such as familiar brand name cereals and chips, but about 99% of the items were either healthy, low cal, high fiber, organic, gluten free (you get the idea). I stood with Natasha’s aunt and eyed a box I wanted to grab. We chatted for the hour before the whistle blew.

As soon as the whistle blew, holy moly!! Everyone dashed to grab a box and run back to their person who would watch their boxes and items as they went back for more. You see, you get a box, keep what you want, put what you don’t back into a box in one of the rows, and then start hunting for more items you want. Everyone was very nice and polite! If there’s an item you’re dying to have, just ask, and if they aren’t dying to have it, too, chances are they will let you have it. The boxes must be filled so that nothing is falling out or sitting way too high out of the box. Common sense judgment comes into play here. I was there for about 45 minutes and came out with two boxes slam full of everything I was wanting to find and more.

My two boxes packed full!

A better view of some of the items I got.

Some of the items I am most excited about are the four boxes of oat bran, five jars of raw almond butter (to be reviewed in tomorrow’s post), several boxes of cereal, several all-natural high fiber soup mixes, Celestial Seasonings tea, and a very generous amount of fiber and protein snack bars.

Woohoo!!! My first “grocery store relay” was a blast and a total success. I love the almond butter, and I just prepared a black bean soup from one of the soup mixes for some of my lunches this week.

The $14 I spent was well worth it, and I easily got my money’s worth, considering five jars of this almond butter costs $110 and I got sooo many other items. The items vary every time, so you never know exactly what you will find, but you always find tons of really neat stuff to try or standbys to bulk up your pantry. I can’t wait for my next “grocery store relay”!